An Ohio trial court certified Michael Cullen, the plaintiff in Cullen V. State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, as a representative for thousands of other Ohio citizens in a class action lawsuit.
Cullen is seeking damages from State Farm because he claims they didn’t inform him of all his options when he repaired a broken windshield on his vehicle. They covered the cost of the replacement, but Cullen says that he had another option: cash. Instead of repairing the broken windshield, State Farm could have provided him with cash equivalent to the cost of repairs. Cullen asserts that State Farm acted in bad faith by not letting him know about the cash option, while State Farm claims that no such option exists in their auto insurance policies.
As the case advances to the Ohio Supreme Court, Cullen finds himself representing 100,000 Ohio citizens with similar complaints in a class action lawsuit.
The decision drew criticism from the Washington Legal Foundation, a non-profit legal organization that filed a brief in the case. Chief counsel Richard Samp said that the plaintiff was only seeking class action status to intimidate State Farm into settling.
“There is little doubt that the only reason the plaintiffs lawyers sought class certification was to coerce the defendant into settling the case without regard to the merits of the plaintiff’s claims,” Samp said, urging the Supreme Court to decertify the case.
The brief explains that the class action status is inappropriate, and that litigation should be decided on a policyholder-by-policyholder basis.
If that many Ohio citizens are claiming that State Farm intentionally mislead them about their options, then they certainly have a case. While the plaintiffs may have different policies, the lawsuit alleges that State Farm acted in bad faith with each policyholder. In this case, a class action lawsuit would be justified.
Sarelson Law Firm – Miami class action attorney